A Trip to the Sudbury Neutrino Laboratory – Catherine Carr,
Movie Review of Europa Report – Walter Merino and
A look back at two memorable solar eclipses and a look ahead at future ones – Randy Attwood

The meeting will be held from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. at The University of Toronto, Mississauga Campus, in lecture hall SE2072 in the William Davis Building.

Potpourri meetings feature a series of short presentations on various astronomy and space topics given by members of the Mississauga Centre. The meeting is open to the public and is free.

Enter off of Mississauga Road. Park in lot 4 or the parkade, across from the fitness centre south of the Davis Building. Enter through the Fitness centre, walk up the stairs until you reach the main corridor then turn right. (If you need an elevator, follow the corridor to the right of the stairs, then go up to the main floor.) Look for the Mississauga Centre sign in front of the lecture room.

Post meeting plans: we usually continue the discussion post-meeting at a local bar – please join us!

Searching for Water Across the Solar System

Abstract: In our exploration of the solar system, the most repeated motto might be “Follow the Water.” What does this mean in a planetary context and why are we so interested in such a common molecule? This talk will describe where the solar system’s water originated, how it was distributed and what that has meant for the evolution of the planets and of smaller bodies.

Particular emphasis will be placed on the changing environment of Mars and how a planet with a warm and wet past became the cold and arid world we know today. The environments of the icy moons of the outer solar system will also be discussed. Here, our search for water is a search for pockets of liquid in a sea of stony ice. It is the observations described by planetary spacecraft that unite these twin quests. However, at the root of it all is a desire to know ourselves and our own world a little bit better.
Dr. Moores is an Assistant Professor at York University in Toronto, Canada. He is the recipient of three NASA Group Achievement Awards and has published 25 peer-reviewed papers on Planetary Science. It was during John’s undergraduate work in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Toronto that he realized that his true passion lay in exploring other worlds.

Following receipt of his B.A.Sc., this brought him to the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona, where he earned his PhD working for Peter Smith on planetary atmospheres. During this time, he was a participant on several space missions including the Phoenix Mars Mission and the Huygens mission to Titan.

Since graduating, John has held research positions with Environment Canada and the Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration at the University of Western Ontario. He is presently a Participating Scientist with theMars Science Laboratory.

How to get here

The next Speaker Night of the RASC Mississauga Centre will take place on Friday February 21 at 8:00 p.m. at The University of Toronto, Mississauga Campus, in lecture hall SE2082 in the William Davis Building (AKA the South building).

Park in lot 4 or the parkade, across from the fitness centre south of the Davis Building. (Parking rate: $2 per hour.)

Enter through the Fitness centre, walk up the stairs until you reach the main corridor then turn right. (If you need an elevator, follow the corridor to the right of the stairs all the way to the end, then go up to the main floor.) Look for the Mississauga Centre sign in front of the lecture room.

Friday Feb 7, 2013 – UTM Rm SE2082

8:00-8:45

Our host this evening is Randy Attwood. The following presenters and their topics will be showcased for the first part of the meeting.
Christopher Lansdale: The Joys of Using Small TelescopesWalter Merino: “Gravity” – a review of the recent movie which is generating Oscar buzzRandy Attwood: Astronomy In The News (time permitting)

8:45-9:00

Break

9:00-10:00

Park in lot 4 or the parkade, across from the fitness centre south of the Davis Building. (Parking rate: $2 per hour.) Enter through the Fitness centre, walk up the stairs until you reach the main corridor then turn right. (If you need an elevator, follow the corridor to the right of the stairs, then go up to the main floor.) Look for the Mississauga Centre sign in front of lecture hall SE2082 in the William Davis Building (AKA the South building).

All of our meetings at UTM are free and open to everyone, however voting at the Annual General Meeting is for current membership only.

After the meeting, join us at Crabby Joe’s at the South Common Mall for more fun.

Shortly before Christmas, the RASC announced that Randy Attwood has been honoured with one of the first three Fellowship awards that the Society has conferred for extraordinary contributions to the Society over many years. The award of Fellow of the RASC is the most senior national award, and is given to those individuals whose efforts have played a significant role in the advancement of the Society’s goals.

In 2006, the International Astronomical Union made a landmark decision that ultimately reclassified the object we call Pluto as a Dwarf Planet. The resultant responses from both the astronomical community and the people of Earth as a whole have been mixed. In this talk I lay out the journey we have taken thus far in our understanding of the Solar System by touring its various objects, understanding its history (both formation/evolution and research thereof), and placing the ‘Pluto debate’ into a much broader discussion: the use of the scientific method.

November 29 Speaker Meeting at UTM

8:00 – 10:00 PM

Direct imaging is the new frontier in exoplanet detection and the means by which we will eventually discover a true Earth twin around a Sun-like star. In this talk, I introduce the instrumentation, observing techniques, and image processing methods used to directly image planets. I will describe in detail several imaged exoplanetary systems which have surprising properties, in particular their atmospheres/sources of emission.

The next 5-10 years will see an explosion of new discoveries in this field due to the commissioning of ground-based extreme adaptive optics imagers capable of revealing young Jupiter/Saturn planets and (perhaps) molten super-Earths almost ten million times fainter than the host stars at small angular separations. I will close by discussing one such project with which I am involved: the Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme Adaptive Optics (SCExAO) project.

Thayne Currie is currently a McLean Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Toronto. His research primarily focuses on imaging and characterizing young extrasolar planets around nearby stars. In the past year, he has played a leading role in identifying and/or confirming the nature of several imaged planet-mass companions, including the newly-announced ROXs 42Bb and the “eye of Sauron” planet Fomalhaut b. He received his PhD in 2008 from UCLA, conducting his thesis research with Scott Kenyon at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. From 2009 to 2012, he was a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow at Goddard Space Flight Center and has been at U of T for the past year. Thayne is originally from rural Kansas and first took an interest in astronomy from observing the night sky on the family farm.

Park in lot 4 or the parkade, across from the fitness centre south of the Davis Building. (Parking rate: $2 per hour.) Enter through the Fitness centre, walk up the stairs until you reach the main corridor then turn right. (If you need an elevator, follow the corridor to the right of the stairs, then go up to the main floor.) Look for the Mississauga Centre sign in front of lecture hall SE2082 in the William Davis Building (AKA the South building).

All of our meetings at UTM are free and open to everyone.

After the meeting, join us at Crabby Joe’s at the South Common Mall for more fun.

Friday, October 25
8:00 – 10:00 PM

Speaker: Kerry-Ann Lecky Hepburn

Collaborating in Astrophotography

Abstract: Astrophotography is one of the fastest growing aspects of astronomy. Often though, it can be a very daunting and solitary hobby with a steep learning curve. Collaborating in astrophotography can have many benefits at any skill level. It can result in the creation of an image that is far superior than what one could create on their own, it accelerates the learning process and can make the hobby less solitary and therefore more enjoyable. In this talk, Kerry-Ann will discuss the various aspects of “teamwork” in astrophotography – from getting started, working with your partner effectively, and producing the final image.

Bio: Kerry-Ann’s interest in astronomy started from a fairly young age. After getting her first telescope at the age of 11 and then her first serious film camera as a teenager she began to think of the possibilities of astrophotography. Over the course of more than 15 years she dabbled in it but it wasn’t until the beginning of 2007 that she started to make some huge leaps in the hobby. Her work has won awards and has been featured in calendars, magazines, books and online publications such as Sky News POW and NASA APOD. While enjoying this intensive hobby, Kerry-Ann lives in Grimsby with her husband and two little girls. She works for The Weather Network as a senior meteorologist. To see her astrophotos visit www.weatherandsky.com

All of our meetings at UTM are free and open to everyone. Join us at 8:00 p.m. at The University of Toronto, Mississauga Campus, in lecture hall SE2082 in the William Davis Building.

Park in lot 4 or the parkade, across from the fitness centre on the south side of the Davis Building. Enter through the Fitness centre, walk up the stairs until you reach the main corridor then turn right. (If you need an elevator, follow the corridor to the right of the stairs, then go up to the main floor.) Look for the Mississauga Centre sign in front of the lecture room.